Thompson quoted in Global Sisters Report article on US sisters, racism

August 5, 2021

Global Sisters Report

Margaret Susan Thompson

History Department

Political Science Department

Campbell Public Affairs Institute

Race & Ethnicity

Religion

United States

Global Sisters Report

Margaret Susan Thompson

Congregations across the United States are undergoing examinations of their histories and the lack of Black sisters and women of color, now with urgency after a police officer's murder of George Floyd in May 2020. For many communities, sisters' efforts to eliminate racism are beginning by first addressing their own failures. The same way the United States cannot address institutionalized racism if it will not recognize the history that created it, Catholic sisters will not be able to build relationships with Black communities if they will not acknowledge how they have hurt them, says Margaret Susan Thompson, associate professor of history and political science. "They have to deal with their own histories to deal with the present," she says. Read more in the Global Sisters Report article, "'Our reckoning': US sisters take up call to examine their role in systemic racism."